Cabinet door construction or the like



April 14, 1959 v.-H. HIERS 2,881,482

CABINET DOOR CONSTRUCTION vOR THE LIKE Filed July 12, 1957 l United .States Patent O ice 2,881,482 CABINET DOOR CONSTRUCTION OR THE LIKE Victor H. Hiers, Two Rivers, Wis., assignor to Hamilton Manufacturing Company, Two Rivers, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application July 12, 1957, Serial No. 671,631 4 Claims. (Cl. y2li-16) This invention relates to cabinet door construction or the like more particularly for steel professional furniture such as laboratory, equipment and aims to provide an improved construction for this purpose. An important object of the invention is the provision of a cabinet door of hollow .construction comprising' a pair of interlocking front and rear panels, the rear panel having a drawn inwardly oiset central area that contributes both to stiffening of the door and provides, with the outer panel, retaining means for an area of sound deadening material, thus enhancing both the strength and the utility of the structure.

A further object of the invention is the provision of means for readily separating the front and rear panels for purposes of decontamination or for replacement in case of damage.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description, taken together with the accompanying drawings, of an illustrative embodiment of the invention and in which drawings- Figure l is a reduced front view of a cabinet or the like with a door construction of the present invention associated therewith;

Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a plan cross-section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. l;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary vertical section taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, and

Figure 5 is a section taken on the line 5--5 of Fig. 1 showing the attachment of the handle.

Referring in detail to the illustrative construction shown in the drawings, the numeral 11 indicates a cabinet or the like which may advantageously be constructed in accordance with my co-pending application on Joint Construction for Sheet Metal Cabinets, iiled May 10, 1957, Serial No. 658,462, the upper portion of the cabinet providing, say, for a drawer 12 and the lower portion for a door 13, the latter giving access to the interior of the cabinet below the drawer 12.

In accordance with the present invention, the door 13, preferably made of sheet metal, comprises inner and outer panels 14 and 15 respectively having inturned and overlapped flanges which space the panels apart to provide a somewhat hollow box-like construction. To this end, the inner panel 14 has an inturned upper ange 16, inturned lower flange 17, inturned side flange 18 and inturned side flange 19. Correspondingly, the outer panel 15 has inturned top flange 20, inturned lower ange 21, inturned side ange 22, and inturned side flange 23.

Since the inner panel 14 is nested within the outer panel 15, the outer panel flange 20 snugly laps the inner panel flange 16 at the top of the door, and the flange 21 laps the ange 17 at the bottom of the door. To yieldingly maintain this interlock, hemispherical detent lugs 24 are struck inwardly from the anges 20 and 21 respectively which snap into slots 25 in the flanges 16 and 17 respectively. To release the lugs 24 from ythe slots 25, the

2,881,482 Patented Apr.. 14, 1959 2 ilanges 20 and 21 may be sprung slightly away from the anges 16 and 17 against the inherent resilience of the metal.

' The outer panel flange 22 which laps the inner panel side ange 18 advantageously includes a return bend extension 26 that laps the rear face of the panel 14, the contiguous margin of the panel 14 being desirably slightly inwardly oiset as at 27 to permit the extension 26 to lie ilush with the inner face of the panel 14. The flange 22 and its extension 26 may be released from the panel 14 by bending the extension 26 loutwardly against the inherent resilience of the metal. The flange 22 is desirably slightly oblique to the plane of the door to provide a slight inward taper as at 28 that facilitates closing of the door with a snug fit.

Outer panel flange 23 laps inner panel flange 19 at the hinge side of the door, and adjacent the hinge 29 both of these panels are inwardly oiset as at 30 and 30a respectively and are perforated in this offset portion as at 31 and 31a respectively to receive the hinge screws 32, there being three such sets of perforations and screws shown, the heads of the screws desirably being thus countersunk within the plane of the hinge `side of the door to be ilush therewith. The hinge screws 32 also pass through perforations 33 in a hinge leaf 34 -for the hinge 29, the hinge leaf being clamped by the screws 32 between the panel flanges and an angular extension plate 35 of a hinge bracket 36 that is welded as at 37 to the inner face of the inner panel 19 adjacent each of the hinges 29. The outer panel 15 is slotted as at 38 for the passage therethrough of the hinge leaf 34 and the perforations 31 and 31a of the flanges and 39 of the hinge bracket plate 35 are advantageously inwardly extruded or conoidal in order to enhance the gripping action between the edge of the perforation and the screw 32 to guard against accidental loosening of the screw.

A hinge leaf 40 may constitute the other hinge leaf of the hinge 29 and may be suitably secured to the cabinet body as need not be here shown.

Still following the present invention a central area of the inner panel 14 is drawn into a sump area formation 41 by being projected toward the outer panel but restrictedly spaced therefrom as at 42 so that a sound deadening element 43 may be interposed between the panel 15 and the sump area 41 of the panel 14. This sound deadening material may be a suitable mastic material or the like that will remain in a viscous state without undue hardening and without running out from the sump area, the material desirably having adhesive properties that contribute to this result. The sound deadening material 43 thus absorbs vibrations which may tend to be set up in the door 13 as it is opened' and closed during use.

The sumps 30a and 31a of the inner panel flange 19 desirably extend to the edge ofthe ange as at 19a (Fig. 3) to permit sump 30 of the outer panel to slip past.

As best seen in Fig. 5, door handle 44 is secured on the face of outer panel 15 by screws 45 that pass through the two panels 14 and 15 from the face of the inner panel 14, the heads 46 of the screws lying in depressions 47 in the face of the inner panel. Before the screws are inserted, spacer sleeves 48 are desirably interposed between the two panels having spring shoulders 48a and 48b. The spacer screws are inserted through holes 49 and snapped past the spring shoulders 48a and thus held in position while the screw 45 is passed through the spacer sleeve and screwed into the handle at 50.

By opening the door, access may be had of a screwdriver to the screws 32 and 46 which may be then readily removcd and the door panels 14 and 15 separated, as previously suggested, for purposes of decontamination of their inner surfaces or for replacement of one or both of the panels in case of damage to the latter.

The sump area 41 which desirably defines a substantial part of the door not only permits an area of sound deadening material to Contact both panels but contributes to enhanced rigidity of the door.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention having been given in accordance with the statutes, it is to be understood that such changes, including modifications or additions may be made as fall within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the invention.

What is here claimed is:

1. Cabinet door construction, comprising, inner and outer panels having overlapping anges, registering sump formations in the flanges, the sump formation in the inner ange extending to the edge'thereof to permit the sump formation of the outer ange to pass thereby, screws passing through said sump formations, and a hinge plate carried by said anges and fastened by said screws.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein the sump formations are further recessed for the screw heads and said I ast mentioned recesses also extend to the edge of the inner flange.

3. In cabinet door construction embodying inner and outer panels having mutually overlapping anges at the hinge side of the door, that improvement comprising, in combination therewith, a hinge bracket secured to one of said panels between the panels and having an `'angular extension plate lapping the said overlapping flanges, a hinge leaf interposed between said bracket extension plate and the flanges, and screws passing through all of said flanges, leaf and extension plate, said extension plate being provided with holes therein for the screws having extruded conoidal edge formations constituting mating threads for the screws respectively.

4. The structure of claim 3 wherein the flanges and the extension plate in the region of said screws are inwardly offset to countersink the screw heads at the hinge side of the door and wherein the screw holes in the offset portions of the ange are further countersunk.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,323,756 Gogay Dec. 2, 1919 1,780,232 Hayman Nov. 4, 1930 1,822,251 Thies Sept. 8, 1931 2,018,742 Rasmussen Oct. 29, 1935 2,556,099 Myer June 5, 1951 2,665,781 Battles et al. Ian. 12, 1954 2,713,284 Bedford July 19, 1955 2,761,532 Colombini Sept. 4, 1956 

